Overview

Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader on the Black Struggle / Edition 1

Contrary to simple textbook tales, the civil rights movement did not arise spontaneously in 1954 with the landmark Brown v. Board of education decision. The black struggle for civil rights can be traced back to the arrival of the first Africans, and to their work in the plantations, manufactories, and homes of the Americas. Civil rights was thus born as labor history.

Civil Rights Since 1787 tells the story of that struggle in its full context, dividing the struggle into six major periods, from slavery to Reconstruction, from segregation to the Second Reconstruction, and from the current backlash to the future prospects for a Third Reconstruction. The "prize" that the movement has sought has often been reduced to a quest for the vote in the South. But all involved in the struggle have always known that the prize is much more than the vote, that the goal is economic as well as political. Further, in distinction from other work, Civil Rights Since 1787 establishes the links between, racial repression and the repression of labor and the left, and emphasizes the North as a region of civil rights struggle.

Featuring the voices and philosophies of orators, activists, and politicians, this anthology emphasizes the role of those ignored by history, as well as the part that education and religion have played in the movement. Civil Rights Since 1787 serves up an informative mix of primary documents and secondary analysis and includes the work of such figures as Ella Baker, Mary Frances Berry, Clayborne Carson, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Eric Foner, Herb Gutman, Fannie Lou Hamer, A. Leon Higginbotham, Darlene Clark Hine, Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Manning Marable,Nell Painter, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, A. Philip Randolph, Mary Church Terrell, and Howard zinn.

Product Details

Editorial Reviews

A highly readable, incredibly informative, seeming doorstop of a book, with 900 pages of writing, most of it brilliant, on civil rights and race, ranging from original sources by leading actors in the struggle to historians who have themselves participated in or understood the issues.

As a reference book, Civil Rights Since 1787 serves as an outstanding
source. The book gives a lucid account of the history of
institutional slavery and racism in America that is all too often
perplexing when presented by educational texts.

Chicago Streetwise

Editors Birnbaum (writer) and Taylor (history, Florida International U.) have gathered an impressive array of documentary materials from a variety of sources, including excerpts from books and articles, and recent newspaper articles. Their material, divided into the broad categories of slavery, reconstruction, segregation, the second reconstruction, backlash redux, and towards a third reconstruction, traces the ongoing black struggle for civil rights from the arrival of the first Africans to America today. Each major section begins with a brief introduction by the editors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Civil Rights Since 1787 is a reader on the black struggle since 1787 that provides a powerful collection of articles which
rewrites history, charting an earlier struggle for civil rights than most titles would present and using primary documents and
secondary analysis to spice the presentation. Works by DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Manning Marable and more
are outstanding presentations.

Internet Bookwatch

“This is a particularly valuable collection, an excellent reader on the struggle for racial equality.”-Howard Zinn,author of A People's History of the United States

“Civil Rights Since 1787 is one of those rare documentary collections that rewrites history. Birnbaum and Taylor not only take a long and wide view of the movement, but they persuasively re-define civil rights to encompass many criticle struggles for social justice. This book is indispensable.”-Robin D.G. Kelley,author of Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class

“As a reference book, Civil Rights Since 1787 serves as an outstanding source. The book gives a lucid account of the history of institutional slavery and racism in America that is all too often perplexing when presented by educational texts.”-Chicago Streetwise

“Jonathan Birnbaum and Clarence Taylor have plumbed historical documents to produce a study that has both truth and urgency. . . . You could not do better than this book.”-Jewish Currents

“An unusually challenging illumination of our still very unfinished history of equal protection of the laws. No classroom, library, or legislature at any level should be without it, and nearly everyone will want to argue with parts of it.”-Nat Hentoff,author of Living the Bill of Rights and Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee